According to official statistics produced by the Ministry of Unification, as of 30th June 2014 there were 129,553 South Koreans registered as ‘members of divided families’. This is an official status and it means that the registered person is eligible to apply for a family reunion with their relatives in the Northhttp://www.theasian.asia/archives/89509

The two Koreas failed to reach an agreement during their first high-level talks in seven years on Wednesday due to differences over planned Seoul-Washington military drills During the 12-hour marathon talks, the North “constantly demanded” Seoul’s postponement of the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises until after the event. The joint South Korea-US drills are scheduled to begin February 24http://www.asianewsnet.net/No-agreement-reached-at-inter-Korean-dialogue-57046.html

North Korea slammed President Park Geun-hye Tuesday for fueling tensions with provocative anti-Pyongyang remarks made during her recent trip to Europe. The North’s Korean Central News Agency, citing a statement issued by an unidentified spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), referred to Park by name and accused her of being a hypocrite and only focused on maintaining a confrontational stance with the DPRK.http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20131112000686

President Park Geun-hye said she was open to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at any time if it is necessary for peace on the Korean Peninsula, indicating a softer approach to the belligerent regime that remains fickle with the South.http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20131103000030

North Korea on Thursday accepted a request by South Korean lawmakers to visit Gaeseong, raising hopes that momentum will pick up for the joint factory park whose recently resumed operations are suffering after a five-month freeze.http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20131024000580

It is never too soon to start preparing for cultural integration of the two Koreas post-reunification, which is likely to entail heavy social conflict, according to President Park Geun-hye’s top cultural adviser.“In the last 60 years that the two Koreas have been in confrontation, we have witnessed not only our language but also our customs and culture changing drastically from one another. Such sense of difference can aggravate the conflict if the two Koreas unexpectedly reunify,” Kim Dong-ho, 76, a policymaker-turned-film guru said in an interview with The Korea Herald.http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130826000802

Seoul on Monday reiterated its demand to separate the issues of reunions of divided families and stalled tours to Mount Geumgang as a cash-strapped Pyongyang seeks to link them to reopen the lucrative resort program.http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130819000815

North and South Korean women’s football teams to meet in East Asian Cup

The North Korean women’s football team hold their first training session on Friday, ahead of their East Asian Cup encounter with neighbours South Korea. The last time a North Korean sport team visited South Korea for a sports competition was when the North Korean men’s football team visited Seoul in 2009 to compete against the South Korean team in a World Cup qualifierhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2013/jul/19/north-south-korea-womens-football-video

North Korea has set conditions for the revival of the jointly-run Kaesong industrial park, which has suspended operations amid escalating tensions. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman from the powerful National Defense Commission Sunday as saying that South Korea should stop all hostile acts and military provocation if it is truly worried about Kaesong’s future. http://www.voanews.com/content/north-korea-sets-conditions-for-reopening-kaesong/1654810.html

26 APRIL 2013

South Korea to pull out citizens from joint industrial zone after North snubs talks

North Korea blocked South Koreans on Wednesday from crossing the heavily armed border to a jointly-operated industrial park, raising doubt about the future of the last remaining major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

29 AUGUST 2012 Japan and North Korea begin intergovernmental talks for the first time in four years

Japan and North Korea on Wednesday began intergovernmental talks for the first time in four years to mainly discuss the retrieval of the remains of Japanese nationals who died in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula during the wahttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20120830a5.html

South Korea’s defence chief on Wednesday urged his soldiers to launch strong counter-attacks if provoked by the North as the two Koreas exchanged tirades despite a recent nuclear deal. Defence Minister Kim Kwan-Jin said any fresh attacks from the North must be turned into a chance for the South’s military to « avenge » the North’s 2010 bombardment of a South Korean frontline island http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1187538/1/.html

North Korea owes a total of 3.5 trillion won ($3.11 billion) to South Korea, but strained inter-Korean relations make it uncertain whether Pyongyang will pay back the loan as scheduled. According to South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, the South Korean government provided its northern neighbor with 1.37 trillion won in loans from 1998 to 2006 to support the construction of a light water reactor, as part of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) project to curb North Korean nuclear ambitions. The maturity of the loan has not been clearly set, thoughhttp://www.koreaherald.com/pop/NewsFlashRight.jsp?newsMLId=20120201000799

5 JANUARY 2012

South Korea willing to hold talks with new NK leader

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said Thursday 5, South Korea would consider holding talks with North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-un at the Seoul Nuclear Summit in March. “If he takes up an appropriate title when we hold talks with North Korea, the talks will be held with him” Kim told reporters in Seoul, after briefing President Lee Myung-bak on 2012 policy planshttp://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20120105000953

South Korea’s nuclear envoy has held rare talks with his North Korean counterpart in Beijing. No details were given, but ahead of the meeting the South’s Wi Sung-lac said talks with Ri Yong-ho would focus on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear programmehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14988141

22 AUGUST 2011

North Korea seizes South’s Mount Kumgang resort assets. It has given South Koreans 72 hours to leave the resort at Mount Kumgang, which lies just inside North Korea. The resort used to be a symbol of co-operation between the two Koreas and a key source of hard currency for Pyongyang.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14611873

North Korea appeared to be speeding up its construction of a light-water reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, raising eyebrows in Seoul as fears rise over radioactive materials from Japan’s tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant.http://www.asianewsnet.net/home/news.php?id=18372&sec=1

Military officers from the rival Koreas have met at their heavily armed border for their first talks since North Korea attacked a southern island in November. Tuesday’s talks were an attempt to restart the six-way talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear-weapons programme, last held more than two years ago when the North walked out, announcing the process deadhttp://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/02/20112861855728272.html

12 JANUARY 2011

An important diplomatic hot line connecting North and South Korea went back into service after having been severed for more than seven months The two sides spoke briefly using the line, which is located at the so-called truce village of Panmunjom. The line connects a government office on the North Korean side of the border with a corresponding office on the South Korean sidehttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/world/asia/13korea.html?_r=1&ref=asia

The United States and South Korea now have to face what has become more than an abstract question: What is more troubling, the specter of North Korea as a growing nuclear power with a brand new uranium-enrichment facility almost ready to go into operation, or a nasty assault by « conventional » weapons on land?http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LK24Dg02.html

A lot of speculation has been going on across the country over why North Korea allegedly torpedoed a South Korean naval ship, killing 46 young seamen, as the international team of investigators concluded last week. If the North attacked the 1,200-ton Navy Corvette, what triggered the decision and what kind of outcome or effect was it expecting?http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100526000776

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